On January 2nd I wrote about an electronic health records (EHRs) suite designed for mental health counselors. I even joked that perhaps a future version would include a mental health counselor chatbot. The following is what I had to say on the matter:
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Thursday Links
- Are family leave policies keeping women’s wages down?
- Study: Medicare Advantage is substantially better than traditional Medicare for diabetes.
- GOP House to investigate federal funding of gain-of-function research.
- Asian-Americans have a life expectancy of 85.7, compared to the US average of 79.1. (“I suspect that highly educated Asian Americans have a life expectancy that is absolutely off the charts.”)
- Why was there a surge of traffic deaths in the first year of the pandemic?
- Why is the FDA hostile to personalized tests?
New Drug for Obesity May Become Biggest Selling Drug of All Time
A new drug by Eli Lilly is poised to become the biggest selling drug of all time. However, a writer at NBC News is worried about whether Americans can afford it. The drug tirzepatide has completed its final stages of testing and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is likely to approve it for weight loss in 2023. Tirzepatide is the third drug from a new class of diabetes drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which includes the drugs Wegovy and Saxenda.
Health Plans Now Required to Provide Price Comparison Tools and Transparency
As of January 1st insurers and health plans are required to provide online tools to help enrollees estimate the cost of common medical services and procedures. As an aside, a future iteration of the law should also discourage medical professionals who work in hospitals or large practices controlled by private equity from only referring inside their systems without giving patients an opportunity to use the tools to shop elsewhere. I’ve never had a problem with doctors steering me to hospital-based services. Yet, I’ve heard horror stories about doctors being compensated or punish based on so-called keepage and leakage. This from Kaiser Health News: